Settling the Score
by radredknuxfan
Summary: Sick of losing to Star Fox, Wolf knew that he had to use different measures in order to have a chance of defeating Star Fox. But what happens when his mind finally snaps from the pressure? Oneshot. Rated T for swearing and violence. COMPLETE


Inside the far reaches of the Lylat system stood the planet Zoness, which in the years since the Lylat Wars has managed to be cleaned up to the point that it nearly looked like its old self.

Just outside of the planet's atmosphere was a large Dreadnought-class cruiser similar to the infamous _Great Fox_. However, instead of the fox shape that said ship had, this ship was more generic in its design, most likely to avoid any unnecessary attention.

Inside the ship, which was referred to as the _Lone Wolf_ , the members of Star Wolf stood on the ship's bridge, two of them watching as their leader continued to pace back and forth in front of the ship's controls, getting angrier and angrier with every step he took.

"What in the hell just happened down there? How did McCloud and his band of chucklefucks manage to hand us our tails yet again?"

Caught off guard by Wolf O'Donnell's head suddenly whipping towards them, both Leon Powalski and Panther Caruso had trouble coming up with a good reason.

Leon opened his mouth as he attempted to give his own explanation, but before he could do so, Wolf held up a clawed hand to silence him.

"That was a rhetorical question, Powalski."

"Then why did you even ask?" asked Leon, slightly annoyed, only to be immediately silenced by a stern look from Wolf.

"Because at this point, I don't think there even is an answer! I don't know how in the hell he manages it, but McCloud seems to have the upper hand every goddamn time, and I'm getting really sick of it!"

Both Leon and Panther winced as Wolf raised his voice to a very high level, although the two of them remained silent.

"Now…since you two can't seem to pilot a Wolfen to save your own pathetic lives, I think we need to take this in a different direction with Star Fox."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Panther.

Wolf didn't exactly have a plan in mind when Panther asked, so he paused for a moment, lowering his gaze to the floor under his boots as he considered his options.

"I believe I do have something special in mind." he said, a devilish smile on his face as he realized what he could pull off.

Both of the other members of Star Wolf listened as they waited for Wolf to tell them of his plan. However, the gray-furred lupine remained silent, which annoyed Leon to the point that he needed to speak.

"Well? Out with it, Wolf!"

Wolf paused, giving Leon a dark look before replying.

"No, I'm not telling you. Even if you managed to keep your fuckin' loud mouth shut, I think it's best for you two to stay in the dark."

"What? Why? I thought the three of us were equals on this team!"

"Because this plan I have in mind hinges on you two not blowing my cover when we go find McCloud!"

"Excuse me? I'll have you know that I can act as well as anyone today!" said Panther indignantly.

Wolf immediately scoffed.

"Oh please. You can't even muster up enough of a convincing act to get into that blue chick's pants!"

Panther bristled, his normally calm and collected demeanor replaced with a look like he wanted to scratch Wolf's remaining eye out. However, before Panther could follow through with it, Leon decided to step in between them.

"Break it up, you two! Let's put all this pent-up aggression towards taking out that blasted Star Fox team, don't you agree?"

Both Wolf and Panther tried for a few more seconds to reach each other, only to give up soon after.

"Fine. If it'll get us through this quicker, I'm all for giving it a rest with him." said Panther, giving Wolf a dark look before returning his gaze to Leon.

As for Leon himself, he turned towards Wolf, waiting for his answer. Instead of speaking, though, Wolf simply nodded, which Leon decided to take as a yes.

"Good. Now, how do you propose we find Star Fox? We don't exactly have a way to keep track of their giant of a ship."

Wolf paused for a moment, realizing that Leon was right. There was no sign of the Great Fox anywhere on their ship's radar, which meant that unless Star Fox was on the other side of the planet; they were most likely already gone.

"I say we head back to Corneria. If we don't run into them there, we should at least be able to get some kind of word about where they're going next."

"Sounds good to me."

Wolf nodded, turning towards the ship's controls as he ignored Panther's attempt to give his own opinion.

"IG, set a course for Corneria. Maximum warp."

IG-479, a droid that performed a similar function as ROB-64 on the Great Fox, turned towards the rest of the crew as the three of them strapped into their seats to prepare for the warp.

 **"** **Affirmative, captain. Setting course for Corneria. Estimated time of arrival: 28 hours and 30 minutes."**

Although Wolf was annoyed that this trip was going to take a while, he decided to remain silent and hope that they would at least be able to catch up to Star Fox and get an idea of where they were going next.

* * *

The journey towards the planet of Corneria felt like forever to the members of Star Wolf, but they eventually managed to reach said planet, pulling out of warp just as they could see it coming towards them.

However, before they could even think about trying to figure out where they were, almost as if by sheer luck, the Great Fox blasted past them a few hundred miles away, heading toward what appeared to be Katina.

"Shit! Turn around! We've gotta get on him before we lose him!" yelled Wolf.

IG immediately went into action, commanding the ship to make the turn before they reached the point where Corneria's gravity would start to pull them in.

Thankfully, despite some worries from Wolf that the amount of money they paid for the robot (which wasn't a whole lot) would lead to some issues, IG successfully managed to maneuver the ship in the direction that the Great Fox was flying.

Wolf let out a breath he didn't realize that he was holding in before nodding in satisfaction, glad that they were finally on the right track.

* * *

Despite some difficulties keeping up with the Great Fox inside the asteroid field, somehow IG managed to maneuver the bulky ship through without any real difficulties, which actually surprised Wolf a little bit.

"Damn, IG, you're pretty good at this shit."

 **"** **Thank you for the compliment, Lord O'Donnell."**

"He even refers to me how I've always wanted to be referred as. Now, why can't you two do the same thing?"

Wolf looked over towards Panther and Leon, who remained silent despite each of them giving IG the evil eye. Thankfully, Wolf didn't notice the looks, as he was too busy paying attention as IG began to speak once again.

 **"** **Approaching Katina. It appears that this planet is the destination of Star Fox."**

"Hmm, interesting. I wonder what they'd need down there." said Leon.

"That's not important! They're not even going to live long enough to finish that mission." said Wolf.

Leon looked over at Wolf and noticed the slightly wild-eyed look he had on, which had the chameleon a little worried, as he believed that the lupine's desperation to finally take out Star Fox could possibly lead to some rookie mistakes from the Star Wolf leader.

However, considering the fact that he didn't even know what Wolf had in mind, he knew there was no way he was going to convince Wolf to change his mind about following through with his plan, so as the others unbuckled the straps holding them against their seats and began heading towards the stairs that lead to the hangar where the Wolfens were, he followed quickly behind them.

"IG, keep a close eye on the Great Fox. I don't want any of them getting away."

 **"** **Affirmative, Lord O'Donnell."**

Satisfied, the three members of Star Wolf traveled down to the hanger and hopped into their fighters, shooting out towards Katina as IG released the hangar bay doors towards the vacuum of space.

* * *

The surface of the planet Katina was largely quiet, as the arid temperatures that the planet usually had limited the amount of people that wished to actually settle here.

So, ever since the Lylat Wars started, Katina has largely been known as one of the Cornerian army's military bases, with different buildings dotting the landscape, containing all of the soldiers that have been stationed there ever since.

The relative quiet was soon broken, though, as a high-pitched whine broke through, revealing the Arwings of the Star Fox team tearing through the skies as they headed towards one of the bases.

"Everyone still doing all right back there? We should be getting to the base soon." asked Fox from the front of the formation as he quickly glanced towards each side of the cockpit.

"All ship readings are still normal, Fox. I'm fine as well, just in case you were asking." said Krystal, giving a playful smirk towards Fox's Arwing near her.

"Great. How about you, Falco?"

"Just peachy, Fox. Haven't run into anything since we've got here and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon."

"Acknowledged."

The team fell silent as they concentrated on maneuvering their crafts towards their destination, but before long, Fox decided to speak up again.

"You know, it'll be kind of nice seeing Bill again. Haven't seen much of him since we helped him and his squadron out way back when."

"Yeah, how's he been? I've been kind of wondering what he's been up to since then." said Falco.

Fox paused for a moment to sigh before replying.

"Falco, I haven't seen him at all since then. We've been busy, remember?"

"Oh yeah…we were. Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Let's just concentrate on meeting up with him and getting this over with."

"Can't let you do that, Star Fox!"

Fox's eyes widened in surprise once he heard that line come through his comlink, but his eyes soon narrowed once he realized who it was.

"Star Wolf…"

"Star Wolf? What the hell are they doing here?" yelled Falco in surprise.

"They're obviously up to no good, so frankly what does it matter at this point?" said Krystal.

Fox grumbled to himself, annoyed that he had to deal with Star Wolf again so soon, before focusing on delivering his orders.

"All ships on me. Let's show these guys once and for all who's boss."

Before Star Fox could begin to take on Star Wolf, though, Wolf's voice suddenly came through their comlinks once again.

"Now hang on, pup, I don't want to just go through any old dogfight."

"Why not?" asked Fox, narrowing his eyes partly out of suspicion and partly because he hated being called a pup.

"Because I know what's going to happen if we do. I want to make this a little more interesting. Head for the abandoned hangar fifty klicks to the west of us. Alone."

"And why would I do that? I know that you're just going to gang up on me and shoot me down."

"That's where you're wrong, McCloud. I'm leaving Panther and Leon here with your friends."

Fox was immediately forced to temporarily remove his headset so that his ears weren't blown out by the mix of protests from everyone else in the area not named Wolf O'Donnell.

"Shut up, you two! I want to handle my business with McCloud alone. You two are just going to get in the way and fuck up my plans!" said Wolf to his teammates.

Panther and Leon both fell silent, although neither of them looked too happy to be left out of the picture.

"Now that we've got things settled, I hope to see you over there, pup!"

Fox glanced towards his radar and saw one of the three shapes that was following him veer off towards the left.

"I don't like this, Fox. I don't think you should do this." said Krystal, sounding nervous as she spoke.

"Yeah, Fox! There's no reason for you to do this. Hell, what makes you think that those two aren't just going to shoot us down once you leave?" said Falco.

Almost as if he heard what Falco said, Wolf's voice suddenly came through their comlinks again.

"Hey Panther! Leon! I'd better not see a scratch on either of their ships when I get back, or you guys are gonna have hell to pay!"

Fox was pleasantly surprised to see the lengths that Wolf was willing to go to convince him to go along with what Wolf had in mind. Tuning out the rant that Leon was currently going through, Fox considered his options, weighing them carefully in his mind before coming to a decision.

"Guys, I'm gonna do it."

"What? That's crazy, Fox! He's just gonna ambush you once you get there!" said Falco in shock.

"I know, but if it means hopefully getting Star Wolf out of our hair for good, I'm willing to take that risk."

"It's your funeral, buddy. Hey, if you don't make it back, what do you think about me taking over the team and renaming it Star Falco?"

Fox chose to ignore Falco's offhanded comment.

"Keep an eye on those two, you guys. I don't trust them to not start shooting as much as I can throw them."

Without waiting for an answer, Fox veered off towards the west in the same direction as Wolf, wondering just what the gray-furred lupine had in mind.

* * *

Eventually, after what felt like forever to Fox, he finally noticed the shape of an airplane hangar began to form over the horizon.

His instincts taking over, he began scanning the skies around him trying to find the telltale shape of a Wolfen, but to his surprise, he found that said Wolfen was actually on the ground in front of the hangar, the canopy ajar as Wolf was nowhere to be seen.

Confused, Fox slowly brought the Arwing to a stop and carefully landed his ship not too far away. Once the canopy of his ship rose up far enough to let him get out, Fox grabbed his blaster, hopping out of the cockpit before immediately brandishing it in the direction of the Wolfen.

Fox slowly walked towards said ship, canvassing the area around him with his blaster to make sure that Wolf wasn't going to jump out at him.

However, there wasn't any sign of him around, so Fox assumed that he must have gone inside the hangar. Remaining focused, Fox walked towards the opening of the hangar, suddenly realizing that it was very dark. Realizing that there was probably a high chance of something going wrong, Fox kept all of his senses on high alert, pulling out a flashlight as he stepped into the darkness.

* * *

As Fox made his way into the pitch black of the abandoned hangar, his head remained on a swivel, pointing the flashlight he had in his hand in every direction he could think of in the hopes of spotting Wolf. His blaster pistol was also pointed in the same direction that his flashlight was pointing towards, ready to fire off a shot at a moment's notice.

However, to Fox's surprise, the hangar was suddenly flooded with light as the power was mysteriously turned on.

His eyes already having adjusted to the darkness, Fox was temporarily blinded by the sudden change, forced to throw his arm up in front of his face to shield his eyes.

"What the hell?" he said quietly to himself, wondering who or what turned all of the lights on.

He didn't get much of a chance to think about it, though, as he was suddenly tackled from behind, his snout slamming hard into the ground as he landed.

Unfortunately, the hard landing Fox took led to him losing his grip on the flashlight. From his current position, he had no way to get to it to defend himself, but as Fox began to try and figure out a way out of this predicament, he soon noticed that his blaster wasn't too far away from him.

Fox tried his best to reach out and grab it, but the heavy weight on his back prevented him from even getting close to it. Before long, Fox soon felt a hand wrapping around the top of his head, as he was partly lifted off of the ground while his legs remained pinned.

Fox tried his best to ignore the pain that was shooting through his spine due to how far he was being bent back, but it still made it difficult for him to concentrate on what was going on.

His eyes soon widened when he noticed a knife now hovering an inch from his throat. Careful not to move, Fox desperately tried to figure out a way out of this predicament when he heard a voice coming from behind him.

"Damn, McCloud, I figured you'd at least be smarter than that! What makes you think I'd want to fight you fairly?"

"I dunno. Maybe all the times that my team and I beat you made you decide to ambush me so you don't look weak!" said Fox.

Fox's snide comment ended up hitting a nerve, which pissed off Wolf enough that he immediately smashed Fox's face into the ground.

"You wanna rephrase that, McCloud?" he asked, growling as he pressed the knife against Fox's throat.

Despite his nose already starting to bleed from the hit he took, Fox smiled, realizing that he managed to rile Wolf up enough that he could feel some of the pressure on his legs lessen.

Jumping into action, Fox threw an elbow, satisfied as he listened to the grunt that came from Wolf. Not letting up, Fox threw a couple more elbows before Wolf finally fell off of him, allowing Fox to pick himself up and adopt a fighting stance.

"Come on, Wolf! You wanna fight? Let's go!" he said, beckoning towards the grounded lupine.

Thoroughly pissed off, Wolf growled loudly before charging forwards and attempting a punch to Fox's jaw. However, Fox was ready for it, parrying it almost effortlessly and grabbing Wolf by the shoulders, pulling the lupine towards him as he threw a knee into his gut.

Fox didn't want to let up in his attacks, so as he watched Wolf fall to the ground, he leaped forward, intending to throw a roundhouse kick into Wolf's face in the hope of ending the fight early, but to Fox's surprise, Wolf's paws immediately went up to catch Fox's foot.

Caught off guard, Fox tried to use his other foot to flip away from Wolf, but before he could do so, he was suddenly lifted off of the ground as Wolf threw him over his shoulder, Fox crying out in pain as he landed on a pile of debris a few meters away.

As Fox quickly tried to pick himself up, Wolf began walking towards him, cracking his knuckles as he began to speak.

"I'm not as weak as you think I am, McCloud. Keep that in mind when I kick your ass."

By this point, Fox had successfully managed to pick himself up, and it was just in time, too. Once Wolf reached where Fox was standing, he threw another hard haymaker towards Fox's face, which he only barely managed to dodge.

Wolf didn't let up, though, as he soon began brandishing his sharp claws, swiping out in an attempt to catch Fox unaware and get him in a vital area. Fox managed to block the claw swipe, but in the process, he ended up taking the brunt of the attack on his arms, leaving large gashes in Fox's skin.

Wolf continued with his claw swipes for another minute or so, forcing Fox on the defensive. The lupine did manage to get a few swipes through his guard, even slicing through Fox's green vest and leaving gashes there, but for the most part Fox managed to block most of the shots.

In an attempt to get back on the offensive, Fox attempted to counter with a kidney punch after dodging another swipe, but Wolf managed to not only block it, but also grab Fox's elbow with the crux of his elbow, throwing out a palm strike and catching Fox in the snout.

Stunned, Fox stumbled back as he clutched at his face, which allowed Wolf to go on the offensive. Rushing forwards, Wolf landed a pair of kidney punches to both of Fox's sides before landing a mean right hook to Fox's face, sending the vulpine to the ground.

Fox desperately attempted to shake out the cobwebs, hoping to recover enough so that he could return to defending himself, but the sudden weight on top of him prevented him from moving.

After successfully managing to mount himself on top of Fox, Wolf went to work, slugging Fox in the face repeatedly while he was unable to defend himself.

Fox's vision began to swim after the tenth punch he took, so he knew that he needed to get off of the ground if he had any chance of coming back.

Fox struggled as he attempted to throw Wolf off of him, but to no avail. However, he soon realized that his legs were free the whole time, as Wolf apparently had his weight on Fox's upper body.

Lifting his foot, Fox threw his knee towards him, catching Wolf right in the back. After hearing the yip of pain coming from Wolf, Fox didn't let up, continuing to knee him in the back before Wolf was finally forced to stand up.

Taking the opportunity, Fox grabbed Wolf's boots, pulling the lupine off of his feet and sending him to the ground.

As Wolf rolled off of Fox to get a good position as he returned to his feet, this allowed Fox to finally return to his feet as well. Shaking his head, Fox tried his best to relieve the headache that was beginning to form from the abuse he took, but it only led to his vision swimming even more.

Worried that he might have a concussion, Fox knew that he had to finish this fight off as soon as he could, so after he managed to clear his vision to the best of his ability, he was soon greeted with the sight of Wolf charging towards him with his fist raised.

Quickly returning his focus to the battle in front of him, Fox dodged the punch from Wolf, grabbing Wolf's fist and landing a palm strike of his own against Wolf's elbow, bending it far enough that Wolf yelled out in pain.

It didn't take long for Wolf to recover, though, as he lashed out with a spin kick towards Fox's side, but Fox managed to catch Wolf's foot, just like with what happened last time when it was the other way around.

However, instead of Fox throwing Wolf, Fox pulled the lupine towards him, releasing Wolf's foot. Right after Wolf stumbled forwards, Fox grabbed Wolf's arms, pulling him forwards once again as the vulpine lashed out with a cracking headbutt.

Stunned, Wolf stumbled back, but unlike what Wolf did when Fox was in this position, Fox waited for the opportune moment to strike.

Watching closely, his eyes narrowed to slits, Fox waited until just the right moment before jumping forwards, using the momentum of his left foot pivoting to land the hardest roundhouse kick he could muster.

The blood flew from Wolf's mouth as Fox's boot successfully connected, sending the lupine spinning before hitting the ground in a heap a few meters away.

Fox waited for a few moments, expecting to see Wolf get back up and continue fighting, but when he remained on the ground not moving, Fox began to believe that he might have knocked him out.

Lowering his guard, Fox walked over towards Wolf, intending to check to see if he was actually knocked out, but when he rolled Wolf over he was surprised to find that the lupine had Fox's own blaster pistols in his clawed hands, and Fox had barely any time to react before Wolf fired.

Thankfully, in Wolf's attempt to catch Fox by surprise, he failed to take into consideration the fact that he needed some more time to aim to get him in a place where it would kill him, so the shot only managed to graze Fox on the shoulder.

The amount of time it took for Fox to yell in pain and clutch at the newly formed blaster burn gave Wolf his chance to get back to his feet, and the gray-furred lupine took the opportunity he was given, squeezing off a couple of shots, hoping that they hit their mark.

Thankfully for Fox, though, he was able to recover quickly enough to dodge out of the way, watching as the bolts sailed harmlessly over his other shoulder.

"Well, lucky you, McCloud. You've managed to get out of the way of those shots, but these pistols can carry up to 200 shots, as I'm sure you're aware. I doubt that you're gonna be able to dodge all of them."

Wolf sneered before squeezing the trigger once more. This time, though, Wolf's gloating gave Fox enough time to prepare, and he shot off towards one of the piles of debris in the hangar, weaving through different hiding spots to limit the amount of time he was exposed.

Finally, Fox successfully managed to make it to the debris pile, and he quickly hid behind it, taking the limited amount of time he had to rest and figure out a plan.

"Shit! I'm not gonna be able to wait till he runs out of ammo. I need to think of something quick!" he thought, desperately looking around for something he could use or someplace he could hide.

Unfortunately, the hiding part was out of the question, as there was no way for him to get anywhere else in the hangar without easily leaving himself open to getting shot.

Luckily, though, after a quick search around the area, he eyes landed on something that he thought he'd lost, which turned out to be his flashlight, still turned on as the beam shined brightly against the nearby wall.

Admittedly, Fox was stuck as to how he would be able to use his flashlight to his advantage, but when he heard the sound of footsteps, he knew something was going on. After grabbing the flashlight and flicking the power off, Fox carefully leaned out of his cover to see what Wolf was doing, only to quickly pull his head backwards when a shot flew past him.

"Come on, McCloud! I know you're back there! Come out and accept your death like a man!"

"Not happening, Wolf." Fox said to himself before bolting out of cover, flicking the high beam setting on before quickly aiming it into Wolf's face.

"Agh, you bastard!" yelled Wolf, forced to shield his eyes as the sheer brightness of the flashlight temporarily made him unable to see.

Wolf did manage to get another shot off with Fox's pistol, but due to the fact that he couldn't even see in front of him, the bolt flew harmlessly to the side. This didn't stop Wolf, however, as he began firing blindly, hoping that one of the shots managed to hit him.

One of the shots did end up grazing Fox in the side, but by the time that happened, he was already face-to-face with Wolf. Tossing the flashlight away, Fox grabbed for the pistol, managing to push Wolf's arm towards the ceiling, a few shots managing to punch through the dilapidated metal.

Wolf struggled to get the pistol back down towards Fox's face, but the vulpine managed to get a good grip on Wolf's arm inside the cradle of his elbow, hitting another palm strike into Wolf's snout that ended up drawing blood from the sheer force of it before Fox fluidly grabbed Wolf's arm with his other hand and judo flipped him over his shoulder.

The sheer force of Wolf landing on the ground sent a shock through his body that jarred his grip on Fox's pistol loose. As it flew into the air, Wolf made a desperate grab for it, but it ended up landing right in Fox's paw, the vulpine pointing it right between Wolf's eye and optical implant.

"I think that's checkmate, Wolf." said Fox as he wiped the blood from his nose with his free hand.

"Fuck! Fine, just end it! It's not worth living anymore if I can't even beat you in a straight up fistfight!"

Wolf waited, expecting Fox to pull the trigger and bring his miserable life to an end, but to the lupine's surprise, Fox tossed the gun away before reaching out with his hand.

"I'm not gonna kill you, Wolf. As much of a pain in the ass you've been, I don't think you deserve death."

Fox's comment once again ended up striking a nerve, but instead of flying off of the handle like last time, Wolf remained calm and collected, reaching out and grabbing Fox's hand, allowing the vulpine to pick him up.

Once Wolf was back on his feet, Fox released his grip on Wolf's hand, intending to leave Wolf alone and head back where the rest of Star Fox was, but to his surprise, Wolf's hand remained gripping Fox's.

Fox barely had time to react before he was being pulled forwards, a knee driven into his gut before a clawed hand went around his throat. Fox's eyes went wide once he realized what Wolf was trying to do, but before he could retaliate; his feet left the ground for just a second before the back of his head was roughly slammed into the ground.

Stunned, Fox could only watch as Wolf's other hand wrapped around his throat, and his airway was almost completely blocked off. Unable to breathe, Fox vainly tried to punch Wolf in the snout, but the lack of air prevented him from putting any real weight behind his strikes.

"You think I don't deserve death, huh?! Well, how about I just kill you then, you motherfucker? See how you like it!" yelled Wolf, his rage nearly consuming him.

As much as Fox didn't want to admit, he knew that there was no way he was getting out of this predicament, so as his eyes began to roll into the back of his head, he embraced the possibility that he was most likely gonna die in the middle of nowhere by the hands of his most hated rival.

Fate had other plans, however, as a loud clang suddenly rang through the hangar, echoing off of the walls before finally dying out. The grip around Fox's neck suddenly loosened as Wolf collapsed to the ground, looking like he was barely hanging on to consciousness.

Sucking in as much air as he could manage, Fox got on to his hands and knees as he coughed heavily, trying to catch his breath.

Wondering just how he managed to survive nearly being choked to death, Fox slowly looked around the hangar hoping to find his savior, only to find the telltale azure plumage of his wing mate Falco Lombardi standing above him, clutching a now dented fire extinguisher in his hands.

"Falco? Is that you?" asked Fox, his voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.

"Of course it's me, you dumbass! I told you not to go chasing after this psycho!" said Falco as he tossed the extinguisher away.

As Falco walked over and brought the still coughing form of Fox McCloud to his feet, he couldn't help but make a snide comment.

"Jesus, man. You look like hell."

"No shit, Falco. Wolf hits like a fucking tank, especially when he's pissed off."

"Speaking of, what do you want to do about this piece of shit?"

Falco pointed towards the nearly unconscious form of Wolf O'Donnell, who somehow through sheer force of will managed to slowly begin to pick himself up.

Fox considered for a moment before walking over to where Wolf was. Despite the amount of pain he was in, Fox lashed out with a roundhouse kick just as Wolf got to his knees, finally sending the Star Wolf leader down for the count.

As Wolf finally blacked out, Fox walked over to where Wolf's legs were.

"Come on, help me pick him up." he said as he beckoned towards Falco.

"What? Why? Why don't we just leave him here?"

"I think that this is a good enough message for him, Falco. Besides, I did tell him that I'm not going to kill him."

Falco really wanted to try to change Fox's mind on this, hoping that leaving him here would get him out of Star Fox's hair for good, but the look on Fox's face made him reconsider.

"Fine, have it your way. Don't blame me, though, once Star Wolf comes back and we're back to square one!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way, buddy."

Falco walked over to join Fox, grabbing the other side of Wolf's body as the two of them carried the gray-furred lupine outside the hangar and towards the Wolfen.

Thankfully, the hatch on said Wolfen was still open, so despite the difficulty of pulling Wolf's heavy body upwards, Fox and Falco managed to get Wolf into his seat, and as the lupine's head lolled to the side, Fox managed to find the button for the homing beacon on the Wolfen's control panel.

"There, that should do it. Hopefully Leon and Panther will find him soon."

As much as Falco wanted to point out how unlike himself Fox was acting, he chose to remain silent, instead changing the subject.

"Come on, let's go head back. I'm sure both Krystal and Bill are worried about you, and I imagine you probably must want to get patched up."

"Oh? Is Krystal already at the base?"

"Yeah, Wolf's goon squad ran off just before I left to find you. I imagine they must be out looking for him. As for Krystal, I told her to head to the base. Hopefully she's there by now."

"I imagine so."

As Fox and Falco returned to their Arwings and lifted off to head towards Bill's base, Fox couldn't help but ask a question that was weighing on his mind since the end of his fight with Wolf.

"Say Falco, how did you manage to get to the hangar without us knowing? Arwings aren't exactly the quietest ships around."

"Oh, I just cut the engines once I got close. To be honest, I got lucky. I was kind of weighing whether I should just say screw the stealthy approach or not. Thank Lyla I was in time, though."

"Yeah, thanks Falco. I appreciate it."

Falco didn't reply, not wanting to completely ruin his tough guy reputation in front of Fox, but as the two of them returned to focusing on getting to Bill's base, Falco couldn't help but smile, listening as the Arwings screamed across the Katinian skyline.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I just wanted to quickly give a shoutout to Tobias Umbra, whose story titled "A Cold Night in Hell" gave me the inspiration to write this story. I've just recently finished reading it, and I really loved it. The fight scenes are incredibly fluid, and I loved some of the interactions between some of the characters. It was also really cool reading about the psychological stress Fox was going through. If you have time, I would absolutely suggest reading through it and its prequel "A Great Day to Die".**

 **Anyway, I really hope you've enjoyed reading this. I've really put a lot of effort into it (especially considering this is triple my usual chapter length). Please also check out some of my other stories as well. Admittedly I haven't updated them in a while, but I'm hoping to get back to them as soon as possible now that I'm in the writing mood again.**

 **Thanks a bunch for checking this out.**

 **RK**

 **PS: Yes, I do plan on making more Star Fox fics. No, I don't have any more ideas as of yet.**


End file.
